


Take-Home Copy

by Condensedcream



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, Replica references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28179774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Condensedcream/pseuds/Condensedcream
Summary: Riku looked odd enough talking to himself on the sand, but then he got weirder.
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	Take-Home Copy

The nail of Riku’s pinky toe looked different from what he remembered. He'd never dreamt of being a foot model, but he never thought his foot might be off model either. Having a nail that forgot— or never had— grown right felt like something Riku would have noticed at some point in his life.

A life where he’d been someone, then someone else. Himself once more and back again. And between all that Riku had stopped becoming other people long enough to have more of him exist. A replica in full and the both of them aware of it.

But would his other have known if not for those who told him?

And was he different in ways he’d never realize? A replica was a copy, not a clone.

Riku thought of the take-home copies of classwork from the furthest reaches of his childhood. An assignment crisp and clean, copied then printed. Fresh ink, hot paper. Almost as nice as the original. Copy it again and you’d see the grain, the noise, the way the letters struggled to hold their shape.

The finer details were the first to go, tidy borders and delicate lines. Things as precise as pinky toe nails.

“I was getting kinda worried about you talking to yourself over here, but now that you’ve stopped it’s somehow weirder.”

Riku blinked and looked up. Sora stood above him, hands on his hips and a sweet smile on his face. The warm colors of the sunset washed him out as casting shadows took away his finer details, too.

“Hey, thanks,” Riku said, his grin lopsided. “Being called weird means a lot coming from the king of it.”

Sora’s laughter snorted out of him.

“I don’t know, I’ve got some stiff competition around these parts,” Sora said, nodding at Riku’s foot.

Riku looked back at it. He’d been wanting to dip his feet in the surf and had gotten as far as kicking one boot off before he noticed the hole in his sock, and his subsequent strange toe. He forgot about things both perilous and pleasant as this concerned him more.

"Am I me?" Riku asked abruptly.

"What? Of course you're you!" Sora said.

_I'm me, he says._

Had Riku said that, or had his other?

"How can you tell?"

Sora gave a long and thoughtful hum.

"Because I love you," Sora explained, a de facto declaration.

Riku looked up at Sora again. He wasn’t tall, but he looked like he was while Riku sat at his feet. The last time they’d been in this position was so long ago Riku couldn’t put numbers to it. Just the games they’d played.

Long hours of Knights and Dragons in which Sora was simultaneously the knight and the dragon, but also the king and princess. One of the many arbitrary and ever changing rules was that Riku needed to be knighted with untimely frequency. Before, during, after. The exact _whens_ of that were up to Sora’s whims. The magic wore off quickly, he insisted.

A tap of a wooden sword to each shoulder— if Riku was lucky. A tap on the noggin if he wasn’t. A hand extended before him to take in his own, one knee on the ground as he pledged his fealty in the form of a kiss. There was a freckle on the knuckle above Sora’s ring finger that made for a perfect target.

“Do you want to go make out at the secret place?” Sora asked, gesturing to the cave not far off. “Because that’s why I came over here to begin with.”

Riku laughed low and easy. At a time where people had plenty to say and there was little sense to be made of it, that Sora was as direct as ever was a comfort. As was his hand, extending to help Riku up.

With a quick tugging of his boot back on, Riku took Sora’s hand. It was muscle memory that made him bring it to his lips, intent on kissing the spot that led to his knighthood many times before.

His eyes were half-closed as he did so, and he wondered if that was why he found no freckle there.

**Author's Note:**

> You too can have a weird toenail if you've inherited an accessory nail. Usually it will be your pinky toe.


End file.
